At the start of the year, I struggled to differentiate the spelling between Bachelor star Jamie Doran and 50 Shades of Grey hottie Jamie Dornan. Purely because, well, neither of them were really on my radar and so I didn’t know who was who.
But following the wild events that transpired in the Australian reality TV landscape this year, I sure as shit know who Jamie Doran is, and obviously you do too, hence why you felt the need to bash the link of this article during your daily social media scroll.
Following his controversial stint on Bachelor In Paradise, his lawsuit against Ten and Warner Bros., and his general cyber shit-stirring, he’s become one of the most known and talked about local reality stars and in a new interview with podcast So Dramatic!, he spills a bunch of tea surrounding the wild events of 2020.
You’ll remember Jamie as the sexy firefighter on last year’s Bachelorette.
Jamie kicks off by claiming that this is the first-ever interview he’s been allowed to do on his own since joining the Bachelor franchise. He says that after starring on The Bachelorette in June 2019, he’s had to have a 10 rep with him for every media appearance and interview.
“This is the first time I can go rogue,” he tells host and expert gossip miner Megan Pustetto, which is the most gorgeous nine words in the English language. Now, brace yourself for the biggest revelations from the ep.
Here. Comes. The. TEAAAAAAAAAA.
Jamie Doran’s been on an 18-month media ban
Jamie Doran claims that no only did he have to have a 10 rep with him for interviews, but at one point, he was actually barred from media appearances altogether.
“Since July [2020], I’ve been on a full media ban, so I’m not allowed to take phone calls from media, I’m not allowed to answer any questions, I’m not even meant to talk to people on the street about what’s going on at the moment,” he said.
Jamie claims it was lifted on November 9, hence this interview.
He also says he was scheduled to be interviewed by the likes of Kyle & Jackie O and The Project, but was forced to turn them down after the lawsuit was announced.
His BIP co-stars were also impacted
Jamie alleges that the media ban did not just impact his appearances. Apparently Ten also put a gag order on a bunch of other contestants from this year’s BIP including Jackson Garlick, Niranga Amarasinghe and Keira Maguire.
Everybody wants a piece of him
The host recounts having to stop and take tons of snaps of Jamie for fans as he was “mobbed” on the streets of Byron, but he says that’s nothing compared to what he cops on the Gold Coast and in Brisbane.
“I walked into a bar the other day in Brisbane and it took me 40 minutes to get from the front door to the booth I booked,” he said. “[People kept stopping me for] photos, questions, talked to their nana on the phone. It’s always the nanas that they make me talk to.”
Jamie’s enlisted the help of Honey Badger and Jarrod Woodgate
Jamie says he’s called upon the help of a coupla ex Bachie blokes who also seemed to struggle with fame.
“I reached out to Nick Cummins for advice and he’s currently helping me deal with some of these social issues I’m having,” he said. “The Honey Badger is going to ring me in a couple of days and we’re going to chat about it. He’s someone that can help me through this process.”
“I also think I might reach out to Jarrod Woodgate as well,” he added, saying that he wants to know “how to deal with the same 30 questions from everyone.”
Woodgate first appeared on Bachelorette and later on BIP, just like Jamie.
“I go out, and I just get the same 30 questions from everyone and after The Bachelorette, 1 in 10 people recognise me.”
His Bachie edit does not represent who he is IRL
Jamie has been very vocal about his disdain for the way he was portrayed on both Bachelorette and BIP and he believes that copping the “stage-five clinger” edit has given people the wrong impression of what he’s really like and he hopes to change this by engaging with his fans.
“What has put me in this position now, and I’m not throwing shade at anyone, I got such a bad edit in The Bachelorette. I feel like I’m now trying to play catch up with the public,” he said.
“I’m trying to prove that I’m not a bad guy, I’m not a stage-five clinger, I’m not the villain. I’m not the way they portrayed me. So when people come up and meet me, I want to prove that I’m just a nice guy, and I think that’s why I try so hard to talk to people. I probably should just do my two minutes and walk away, but that’s why I do eight minutes, because I had such a bad start on the franchise.”
Jamie had a phone smashed by an aggressive fan during a night out
While out in Darwin, he claims a girl asked to get a pic with him and when he declined, she obliterated his phone.
“A girl grabbed my iPhone and smashed it because I wouldn’t get a photo with her. I went and reported it to the police but they said, ‘If we go through with these charges, she’ll a record for the rest of her life,’ so I dropped the charges,” he said.
Bachie isn’t the only dating show Jamie applied for
Jamie Doran reveals that his search for love led him to apply for both The Bachelorette and Married At First Sight but he obvs went with the former.
But get this, it was his good mate Dean Wells (who also starred on MAFS) who suggested he sign up for a dating show, and here we are.
“I applied for Married At First Sight and The Bachelorette, and we were joking about it saying, ‘Imagine if I got on both?’” he said. And that’s just what happened.
He also revealed that MAFS star Ivan Sarakula was in his interview and he got knocked back for Bachelorette but was obvs approved for the Nine dating show.
I can’t help but wonder if things would’ve turned out differently had he rolled with MAFS rather than Bachie… I guess we’ll never know.
Suss out the full interview here. It’s a wild, wild ride.
